To Be Born in a Bag

Despite recent progress, artificial wombs still face technical challenges. De-extinction efforts, of all things, are driving it forward. Just how much is anyone’s guess.

A science fiction story about biology and computational models.

It may soon be possible to make human eggs from stem cells, thanks to advances in a technology called in vitro oogenesis. What happens next?

Cyanobacteria — which first appeared on Earth some 3.5 billion years ago and divide every six hours — can “sense” shortening days and change the molecular compositions of their cell membranes to prepare for cold weather.

Synthetic DNA poses biosecurity risks that curated databases and screening algorithms can minimize. Here’s how they work now and how they could improve.

Medicines modeled off the innate immune system have the best chance of protecting us during the next viral outbreak.